


The Lost Prince

by ClestialSerpent



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bad Parenting, Childhood Friends, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, I just needed to write this for me, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Slight Transphobia, because I’m weak, trans author
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-23 13:06:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30055908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClestialSerpent/pseuds/ClestialSerpent
Summary: Magic has been slowly retuning to the universe.Peace has returned to Etheria.But of course, peace never lasts for long. Chaos returns, as do old friends, old stories, and new situations to deal with.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Angella/Micah (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue

“Wait, you guys found a lost runestone?” 

The best friend squad collectively turned to look at Micah from where they were doing their own post-dinner chores. He had been quietly cleaning dishes while the younglings were rambunctiously telling stories from their adventures to each other, so it came at a bit of a surprise when he spoke up so urgently.

“Well, technically yes, but it turns out it was just some failed first-ones experiment” Adora shrugged, still facing towards Micah as she continued to stack the dishes she finished cleaning. “Why, were you also interested in the legend of the fire princess?”

“Oh, no that’s not it.” He shook his head, offering up his best reassuring dad-smile. “Just the ramblings of an old man, no need to worry.” 

Glimmer raised an eyebrow, pausing to lift a hand to Micah, gently laying it on his arm. “Dad, we all know you’re not that old. You can always talk to us too you know.”

“Yeah. We have plenty of great listening ears here.” Bow added on, not indicating physically that he was particularly thinking of Catra’s big fluffy cat ears, since he wasn’t keen on meeting the consequences of her realizing that. Besides, it wasn’t as if she was a particularly good listener anyways.

Micah sighed, realizing he didn’t really have a way to worm himself out of this, and set the last of the cleaned dishes on the counter where Glimmer was drying them off. “Well, there was an actual lost runestone, you know. After a tragedy during the failed princess alliance, I guess everyone just… decided to not talk about it.”

“Woah woah woah— You’re telling us that there is a whole other actual runestone? And none of us ever heard about it?” Catra finally piped in, interest peaked at the new information. The 4 of them had been in every corner of Etheria, and she was surprised there would be something this important they didn’t know about.

“Well, we did all have more pressing matters to attend to, and it was assumed that the Sunstone was never going to resurface anyways. It wasn’t exactly something to be brought up in casual conversation… Besides, Angella didn’t like talking about it.” 

There was a moment of silence as everyone’s movement slowed. Catra looked from Micah, to Adora and the others, before back at the sorcerer. “Well, nobody else seems to want to ask. So what happened?” Adora elbowed her, causing her to yell out and gingerly rub her arm.

Micah chuckled quietly about the interaction, waving his hand. “It’s alright, it’s a story that deserves to be told. You know, you fellas aren’t the only best friend squad. I used to be in a best friend squad myself.” He wiped off his hands, turning in his seat to be in a better position to tell the story. “We used to be inseparable, Angella, me, and the prince connected to the Sunstone...


	2. Old friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a note none of this is beta-read or anything! If you spot typos feel free to tell me :0

“—Aether!”

The boy in question looked up from his book, brushing a strand of loose white hair away from his eyes to better see the person running towards him. 

“Micah, you’re energetic as always. Something happen?” He leaned to the side and Micah skidded to a stop a little too close to him to have been safe, but he wasn’t going to complain.

Following behind him at a much more reasonable pace was Angella, half formed wings tucked neatly behind her back as she approached. Aether gave her a little nod, since he knew that the future queen wasn’t fond of him bowing to her. After all, despite her status they were close friends, though he still found the thought that the girl before her was going to rule all of Etheria one day daunting. 

“I learned a new spell! I wanted to show you, so I had Angella teleport us here.” He grinned down, as Aether noticed that his top knot was loose and messy, with a couple of sticks and leaves poking out of it. Angella had significantly fewer leaves, considering she picked them out, but with the speed Micah ran she couldn’t get them all.

Aether patted the empty space next to him on the garden plot ledge he was sitting on. “Show me while I fix your hair. I’m assuming you went though a couple missed teleportations on the way here?” Angella blushed at the accusation, looking away and crossing her arms.

“At least I didn’t permanently dye the gates to the castle black with my last experiment.” She retorted, jutting her chin in the air as it was the prince’s turn to blush. 

“Your parents changed them out! The castle looks normal again.” Micah laughed at them both, reaching out from where he’s sat to take Angella’s hand.

“Okay, okay you two. All sort of magic take practice. Speaking of which!” He let go, allowing Angella to take a step out of the way before lifting both his hands into position. He started methodically drawing out a magical circle in the air, one Aether hadn’t seen him do before. Moments later, a small bit of light spews out from the center like a firework… A very small, pitiful firework.

Micah tilted his head, looking towards where the circle was pointed with a face full of disappointment. “Huh, I was sure I did that right… maybe—“

He was cut off as suddenly there was a loud noise, and fanciful colours started spewing from the circle properly. Cracks and pops sound through the air, but moments later a dark hole seems to appear at the center of the magical fireworks, expanding to envelop them all and drench the trio back in silence, then disappearing in a blink.

Aether blinked from where he had jumped away from the magic circle, now sitting on the ground next to the ledge. “O-oh, did I do that? Sorry, Micah…” he brushed dirt off himself with one hand as the aforementioned boy helped him up with his other. 

“It’s alright, I think we were all surprised!” He laughed again, as Aether turned his face away slightly. 

“That’s right, you’ll get there eventually. We all have to work on perfecting our magic. Perhaps yours could do with a little less comedic timing?” She raised an eyebrow towards Micah with a smirk, who’s laughter got quieter and more shy.

The prince shook his head, gently twisting at strands of his hair again. “You both at least can control when you use your magic though… Mine is so unstable.” His brows furrowed. “What if I accidentally hurt someone someday? I’m not even handling the full power of the sunstone yet…”

Angella and Micah looked at each other before each pulling Aether into a hug from either side. He sighed, accepting the hug since he learned early on that escaping a hug from Micah is a futile effort without teleportation abilities like Angella.

“You’ll get there, we believe in you! You’d never do something like that.” Angella nodded along with what he was saying, as Aether sighed, but relented.

He stepped back, rubbing his eye to prevent any tears from falling before smiling at them both. “Thanks. I can have confidence that at least two people in Etheria will always believe in me then.” 

“Always.” They say at practically the same time, before all having a good chuckle. 

The three stay like that for a moment before they heard a voice calling towards them, and Aether turns around to see one of the guards from his castle. They wait for the man to catch up to where they are, slightly out of breath from running, then bowing towards them. “Prince Nisha, your parents seek council with you immediately about your—“

“It’s Aether—“ Micah cuts in, arms crossed and opening his mouth as if he was about to say more before Aether swats at him, making a thin black wall appear in front of his face so he couldn’t interrupt again.

“Hush, I only picked the name a couple of weeks ago it’s fine. Tell them I’ll be right there.” The guard looked confused for a moment, but didn’t add anything else before bowing, running back towards the direction of the castle.

The black square disappeared, showing Micah sticking his tongue out towards the leaving guard’s back as Aether rolled his eyes. “I swear, you’re more stubborn about this than I am. I do appreciate it though.” He tipped his head, looking towards the castle and sighing once more.

“I guess I should get going. My parents wouldn’t be happy if I took too long again.” He bowed slightly towards the two of them, and was greeted by another big warm Micah hug. Not that he minded, ever.

“We’ll see you soon then! Oh— The princess ball is soon, Angella’s already inviting me as her plus one. Are you coming?” Aether considered it for a moment.

He didn’t particularly like the thought of being stuck at a party all day, especially since he knew if his parents heard he was going to go they’d try their best to convince him into a dress. On another hand, he knows they wouldn’t actually force him to do anything, and a whole night hanging out with Angella and Micah without being called away to deal with things sounded quite nice. 

“Most likely. I’ll find a way to design myself a suit.” The two of them seemed happy about that answer, and waved Aether off as he started heading back towards the castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters will likely get longer as we go on!! I just want to set everything up properly first in small chunks.


	3. Lost n Found

“Wait— Isn’t his Runestone called the _Sunstone_?”

Micah’s story was cut off as Catra interjected, though nobody truly minded since everyone was curious about the question anyways.

“Well, you see” Micah motioned with his hands a vague roundish shape, trying his best to give as much of a visual representation as he could. “It was coloured like a sunstone, just a black sunstone. I assume the Black Garnet was named first, so they didn’t want to name it the Black Sunstone and just left the first bit out. It was shaped like the Moonstone, but it was more round and less of an oval. It was as black as the midnight sky, and had little sparkling bits in it like stars.”

He motioned towards Glimmer. “While the Moonstone granted control over light and light-based powers like teleportation, the Sunstone granted control over darkness. It could erode things away at will.” He held up his hands in defense as he noticed the concerned looks on everyone’s faces.

“—Which! Must sound quite scary, but I assure you Aether was very nice. He was a caring and understanding man, and looked after his kingdom well as their ruling prince.” Micah panickedly explained, lowering his hands once he realized they were satisfied with his answer.

There was another moment of silence before Glimmer spoke up. “So… What happened?”

Micah had to say he wasn’t surprised that was the next question, but as he strung his thoughts together he realized it would still be a fairly difficult story to tell. He took a deep breath, running his hands down his thighs.

“I guess… I can't say for certain how it started, but we started drifting apart eventually. As you would know, Angella and I got married and became king and queen of Brightmoon. He was really busy managing his own kingdom, as well as helping fight in the war.”

“Eventually, we heard news that the Sunstone was acting up. The three of us went to go investigate. The Sunstone isn’t kept near the castle like the Moonstone is, since it’s naturally more unstable runestone. It was in a cave a little ways away from a village that was next to the castle. When we showed up, we found out that the runestone had grown in power, and it’s influence was spreading into the town. Which, you know, would be a bad thing. Considering all the erosion…”

His story dwindled out as he thought for a moment, looking down towards the ground. “We managed to get into the cave and Aether subdued the Sunstone… But then it suddenly started going haywire much harder than before. Angella and I managed to escape, but he stayed behind to hold the runestone off… and was buried with it.”

The room went silent. Although it was pretty clear how the story was going to end, it was still quite the punch to the gut to hear it. Everyone looked down contemplatively for a while, before Bow finally pipped up.

“Maybe he’s still alive? I mean, I never met him but he sounds pretty powerful.” He paused in the middle of his idea to gauge Micah’s reaction. “Maybe… We could at least go back and check?”

“I… I would like to. Perhaps at least unearthing the runestone would be a good way to honor him and his former kingdom but… I don’t know, it could be dangerous.” He rubbed the back of his head, but Adora stood up, throwing her arms to the sides.

“We can handle dangerous! I mean, it’s like, kinda what we do.” She put a hand on her shoulder as the rest of the group stood as well, Glimmer gently lifting Micah’s arm to get him to stand with them.

“That’s right! And even if it gets too risky, we're always good at running away as well. We should at least try to honor your old friend, he sounds like he was very important to you.” 

“If you’re all so certain… alright, let's do it.”

After he gave the final confirmation, the group moved over to the meeting room to make their plans. Glimmer activated the holographic map that covers the table, before hesitating for a second.

“Say uhm… Where exactly is— or was this kingdom?” She looked down at the map that was already filled with marked territories.

Micah looked across the map, walking over to the eastern end of the table. “Well, I don’t remember the exact borders, but it used to be around here, on the front lines against the fright zone near Salineas and Mystacor. The kingdom was already struggling considering its position so once Aether disappeared, Sunhallow followed. The land was just slowly claimed by the surrounding territories, including the Frightzone. Actually, that’s where the cave is. Or former cave.”

“Well, luckily for us that’s Scorpia’s kingdom again, so getting there shouldn’t be a problem.” Catra pointed out. “And sparkles can just teleport us there. If I know anyone that wouldn’t mind uninvited guests, it would be Scorpia.” She said fondly, despite rolling her eyes.

“Woah, wait, we’re going now? Like right now? I mean— I don’t know if I’ll be ready. What if he actually _is_ still there? How would I explain—“

“—Dad, relax.” Glimmer got on her tippie toes to grab him by the shoulders, pulling him down so that he was sitting on the chair he was standing next to. “If he’s really anything like you said, I’m sure he’d have no hard feelings.”

“Yeah, besides, we shouldn’t be getting our hopes up too high about a guy who’s been supposedly buried underground for 20 years to be too… alive” The statement earned Catra a few disapproving glances. “What? I’m telling the truth— Not that I don’t want to find him all happy and well, but we have to manage our expectations”

“No, no, Catra is right.” Micah took a deep breath, steeling himself. “Alright, alright… If we’re going now, let’s go before it gets too dark outside.” The group nodded, gathering all at the head of the table and linking hands.

Glimmer gave each of them a look, to which they nodded in response. The familiar pinkish light surrounded the group, before this disappeared from the room in a flash of light.

Once their visions return, their surroundings are far more bleak looking. The ground was gray, devoid of color, as was what little foliage that was left in the area. The landscape was a little hilly, however there was no sign of any sort of cave, or even a place where a cave could be hidden.

“Huh. How charming.” Catra commented, crossing her arms as she kicked at a black pebble in the dirt. 

Micah immediately walked away from the group, head whipping around as he looked all over his surroundings. “It didn’t always look like this… I mean, Sunhallow was always a little gray compared to other kingdoms in Etheria, but there was a village here…” He sighed. “I guess I did get my hopes up. 20 years is longer than you’d think it is.”

As he was about to walk back saying they should return home, Adora lifted her hand, stopping him in his path as a soft glow came to her eyes.

“Hold on— I actually think I can sense something.” She started walking past Micah as the others followed closely behind, slowing down and speeding up periodically as if following a weak signal. 

“I’m getting close, whatever I’m sensing must be near—“ Before she could finish her sentence, the ground starts to rumble beneath them. The solid surface they were just standing on seemed to turn soft, and they sank quickly through the sandy dirt.

The falling seemed to last several seconds before they landed, cushioned by the dirt that they slid down with. As soon as they gathered their bearings, Glimmer made a bright light with her hands, illuminating the cavern they were now in.

The light from the entrance was almost entirely blocked by more dirt and sand, and for a second everyone was thankful they had someone with them that could teleport. The slope looked entirely impossible to climb out of. 

To the other side was a long cavern, jagged black crystals poking out from all the walls lining the cavern. They squinted, noticing that there was something else in the far back of the cavern that they just barely couldn’t see clearly. The motley group looked at each other again, once again reaching a silent confirmation before starting to walk in the direction of the object.

As they got closer, the light from Glimmer’s hand slowly crawled across the surface of the object they were heading closer towards. What was revealed was a jagged surface, a large black crystal coming from the ground and extending further and up towards the back ceiling of the cavern. Peeking out from the top of the crystal was as Micah described, a large orb, even blacker than the crystal mostly enveloping it. It had bright white spots in it, looking as if tiny stars themselves were melded into it, casting a faint bit of white light against the cavern walls.

Tentatively, the group got closer to the natural-looking monument. Micah reached a hand out towards it, but before his hand could even make contact a crack appeared at the bottom. It rapidly got larger, heading up and spreading across the monument as the entire cavern started to shake, shards of dark crystals raining down upon them.

“What’s happening!?” Bow lifted an arm above Glimmer, covering her as they huddled together.

“I-I don’t know! I didn’t do anything!” Micah turned back to the party, quickly drawing a spell circle in the air as he ran, summoning a protective barrier around the group. “Glimmer, get ready to get us out if the cave collapses!”

Glimmer nodded as the shards clinked against the barrier. Moments later there was a louder cracking noise, and the group quickly look up and over to see that the Sunstone had fallen off from the now broken monument, hitting the ground. As soon as it does, it started floating back up into the air, growing brighter and brighter until the entire cavern was bathed in a flash of bright light.

The gang blinked the light out of their eyes, trying to squint through the dark spots in their vision that appeared from accidentally looking at too bright of a light. As they looked around again, they noticed that the black crystals that were growing out of the walls were all gone. So was, in fact, the monument that was there before.

There was a figure lying on the stone ground where the giant crystal recently stood, the group all staring wide eyed at the series of events that just occurred. 

Catra was the first to recover from the shock, running ahead towards the figure but followed closely behind by everyone else. Bow grabs them by the wrist, placing two fingers on it for a few moments before looking up at the party. “They’re still alive—“

Glimmer helped Micah flip the person over, and he lifted them up into a semi-sitting position. Their long hair fell over his arm and dragged onto the ground, white at the roots but turning to a deep black at the tip. Their eyes slowly started blinking open, gaze shifting towards the person that was holding them as soon as they were in focus. Their eyebrows furrow as their features form into a slight frown.

“... Micah?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s a quick sketch of what Aether looks like since I didn’t want to spend 1000 words describing him— 
> 
> https://sta.sh/01hfr3dxyddy


	4. That Went Well

“I’m just going to go check on him one more time—“

Glimmer groaned as she teleported over to Micah, grabbing him and teleporting him back over to the table they were all sitting at.

“Your majesty, he’s going to be fine. We already had a doctor check on him, he just needs a little rest.” Adora extended a hand towards him, trying to reassure him as Catra snorted.

“Funny you would say that, considering I recall being walked in on every 5 minutes when we just got off Hoard Prime’s ship.” Adora quickly whipped her head towards Catra, a pink flush rising on her cheeks as she started mumble-yelling her defense over the sounds of everyone’s laughter. 

“Perhaps I am worrying a little too hard. Besides, we do have to figure out how to tell him about the last 20 years.” He rubbed his hand in Glimmer’s hair, messing it up despite her playful complaints. “Last time he saw you, you were still in Angella’s stomach.”

The room went quiet again after that statement, as everyone found themselves looking towards the seat at the end of the table. 

“Right… Angella.” He looked down, brows furrowing as he tried to stop any tears from falling from his eyes. “We’re going to have to tell him she’s gone. At least he’ll probably ask about her early on so we won’t have to bring it up ourselves.”

“You guys really were close, huh.” Micah nodded in response to Glimmer, putting his hand over hers where it was resting on his arm.

“It’s not only that… You know, I tried for a long time to figure out why he started growing distant from us. I ended up with a theory… I think… That he was in love with Angella as well.”

“Woah Woah Woah— He was in love with mom?” Glimmer lifted her hand off in surprise, an over dramatic image popping into her head. “You were okay with that?”

Micah let out a short laugh, patting Glimmer on the side to get her to calm down. “Well, of course I was. He never actually mentioned anything about it and he was still very happy for us. He always put everyone else’s feelings before his own. I also knew that Angella never saw him as anything more than a friend, there were never any conflicts about it.” 

“It’s also just the best theory I have. We didn’t really talk too much in those last few years, so I never got to ask…” He sighed, hanging his head a little. “I would never know how to ask either. ‘Hey there, buddy, are you avoiding me cause you like my wife?’” He pretended to ask in a joking tone, causing more laughing to erupt out around the table, and Catra to roll her eyes, but still with a smile. 

“He should be happy to meet all the new princesses though. I know I had a good time getting to know them, and it’s always good to know the world is in capable hands.”

“Well, you’d better start introducing me then.”

The group’s heads snapped up and over towards the doorway where Aether was leaning with his arms crossed, causing Micah to quickly backtrack and think about what he just said.

“Aether! You uh— How long have you been standing there—“ He laughed at him as he saw how flustered he was, before taking a couple steps into the room. 

“There’s no need to worry if you were talking trash. I only woke up moments ago. I’m in the next room, and your laughter is quite loud.” The others in the room looked embarrassed as well, but he waved his hand. “Don’t concern yourselves with that comment. It was a nice sound to wake up to.”

He bowed, eyes quickly glancing over the entire room, one eyebrow twitching down for just a moment. “Well, Micah. Going to tell me who these lovely folks are?”

Micah stood up quickly, almost knocking over his chair which he had to grab and stabilizer, causing a few more giggles from the crowd before clearing his throat. 

“Uh— well you see, you’ve been gone for a while and— oh, you could probably tell from the way I look haha, um and—“ He cleared his throat a second time, stopping his former train of thought before gesturing across the table. “This is Adora she’s uh, actually that ancient legend, She-Ra, that’s her girlfriend Catra who used to be evil and in the hoard previously but you know she’s good now of course, that’s Bow, he’s our master technician and also—“

“—Glimmer!” Aether’s eyes widened as he stepped forward more towards her, hands out as he sized her up. “I knew you would end up having a daughter. And what a splitting image of the two of you. You must be quite the individual, considering the caliber of your parents.” 

Glimmer laughed quietly, scratching the back of her head as she nodded. “It’s nice to meet you too…”

Aether paused, slowly lowering his hands before glancing over at Micah. “I sense I’ve made the situation awkward again, I’m sorry…”

“Oh, it’s alright, it's not your fault, I imagine it must be a lot to process.” He smiled, hesitating only for a moment before pulling him into a big hug, causing him to make a noise in response.

“Ah, there it is. Glad to see you haven’t changed much, at least.” He said once the larger man was no longer crushing his airways. The corner of his mouth turned up as he lifted a land, flipping the strand of hair that was on his forehead up and to the back. “You still don’t know how to do your own hair. You’d think after watching me do it so many times you’d remember. Angella didn’t want to do it for you today?”

The question was greeted by an awkward silence. Aether blinked, looking around the room for a moment as he pieced together the answer to his own question. “She—“

“She’s gone, isn’t she? She’d never miss a moment like this intentionally, and Glimmer wears a crown. It’s also why you all came to find me in the first place, she would have known it would be too dangerous…” His voice dwindled out to silence as he continued, the others lowering their heads as Micah took him by both arms.

“Are you going to be okay?” His voice was full of concern as Aether took a few deep breaths, nodding slowly once before his eye twitched and he started shaking his head.

“I never— I didn’t get to say goodbye… She— She died thinking—“ Micah let go, balancing himself as the entire room started to shake, distant cracking noises starting to echo through the air.

“Oh boy—“ He tried his best to regain his footing as the others scrambled to grab onto something, raising his arms to draw a large magical circle with both of them. It took a few moments, since he had to start over whenever he was thrown off balance, but as soon as it was done, it shot out in front of him and passed through Aether harmlessly.

Moments later, the prince blinked, holding a hand to his forehead as the ground once again went still. He wiped off a tear that had fallen from his eye, folding his hands together afterwards and staring at his feet. “Ah… Thank you, Micah.” 

“What was that!? Catra’s voice cracked as she yelled from where she was gripping so tightly to the back of her chair her claws were digging into the sides.

“Hey, I recognize that spell! Dad used to do it for me to help me calm down and relax when I was little. I’ve never seen it drawn that big before though…” 

Aether nodded, a little embarrassed as Micah gave him his hand to steady himself. “Ah, he must have repurposed it then.” He looked up at Micah to confirm he didn’t want to explain it himself when the others gave him questioning glances. “Micah invented the spell for my sake. It helps me come back to my senses when my own magic… overwhelms me on occasion.”

Micah gave Aether’s hand a little squeeze before letting go. He wanted to reassure him some more, but also didn’t wish to drag on the conversation. “Why don’t we—“

He gets cut off as a beeping sound comes from behind Bow’s back. He reaches over and pulls out his tracker pad, the source of the sound. It was vibrating and glowing, a little icon on the screen indicating that there was an incoming call.

He raised an eyebrow, glancing up before tapping on the screen and answering.

“BOW!” Entrapta’s shrill voice came through the machine, causing Bow to reel back for a moment and wince, silently turning the volume down a couple clicks. “Sorry to call so soon after the earthquake, I’m sure you’re still gathering yourselves, but I just witnessed something incredible!!”

They didn’t even bother to ask how she knew about the earthquake, since it  _ was _ Entrapta on the other end, so she took it as her opportunity to continue. 

“I got notified by the sensors in the Fright Zone, or well, former Fright Zone since I’m helping Scorpia take all this down that an earthquake was happening near here! However when I pulled up the data, I realized there was one at the same time over at your castle as well, isn’t that fascinating!?”

“So I did just a tad of digging—“ The group heard sounds of rapid typing. “And it turns out the simultaneous earthquakes were caused by the same source of magic, but coming from two different spots at the same time!!” She pressed her face against the screen. “So what I’m asking is if any of you have noticed what could have caused this.”

“Well…” Bow hesitated, looking around the room one more time before turning the tracker pad to face Aether, who gave a little wave. The princess on the other end gasped. 

“HELLO! Oh wow, you were the source of all that energy from Brightmoon?? Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right there as soon as I can with all my equipment!!” Before anyone could complain, the feed cut, and Bow sighed.

“Well, I guess I’ll go pick her up soon so she doesn’t try to come here by foot.” Glimmer said humorously as Aether made a slight face.

“She’s… energetic. Does she intend on cutting me open?” Catra snorted again as Adora rolled her eyes.

“No, though you know I can see how you’d get that impression. She probably just wants to take some measurements, but you know we won’t let her touch you if you don’t want to deal with it.” Adora waved her hands. 

Aether looked towards the cracks visible in some corners of the room, inner corners of his eyebrows going up for a moment before looking back down at his feet. “No, it’s alright. You all seem to trust her, if she can help figure something out about my powers, then that would be lovely.”

They waited in the room, making some small talk before a large glowing silhouette appeared, solidifying into Glimmer, Entrapta, and a whole lot of machinery. Aether gave her a few looks while she was setting up, not that she noticed, but aside from that Micah looked more nervous than he did about the predicament.

She got a variety of data while rambling the entire time, though it wasn’t as if anyone could actually understand what she was talking about. She finally gathered all of her discoveries, pulling off all the various instruments she had attached to him.

“So… What happened?” Aether asked after a moment of silence, causing Entrapta to look back over from where she was tending to her machines.

“I already told you! But it’s okay, I can summarize it one more time.” She held up a big screen with her hair, using the other pigtail to grab a stick and gesture to the various images. “As you would know, all elemental princesses, or well in your case prince, are connected to their Runestones which provides them their magic drawn from Etheria itself.”

“Your connection to your Runestone is one of the strongest I’ve gotten to study! The data on the earthquake shows that it was caused by both of you at the same time, and it gradually got stronger as time went on. My theory is that you and your Runestone like to fuel each other in a positive feedback loop, meaning whenever your magic gets unstable, it causes your Runestone to get unstable, which will in turn just make you even  _ more _ unstable! If it’s like what you said, then in this case, Glimmer’s dad’s spell cut off the loop, but if allowed to continue on, the results would be  _ catastrophic! _ ”

Entrapta threw her hands in the air, the screen landing on a final image of giant cracks the entirety of the northeast with an explosion symbol where the Sunstone is. Aether noticed he was grimacing upon seeing his face reflected in the screen, getting up and turning around so that he didn’t have to face everyone else, rubbing his face in one gloved hand. 

Micah looked to everyone with concern evidently painted across his features before following a few steps to Aether, putting an arm around his shoulders. “It can’t be that bad. I’m always here to help, and you can still—“

“You’re  _ not _ always going to be here to help Micah. You have a home— and a child now, I can’t just rely on you and… I can’t just rely on you forever.” He swiped his hand off his shoulder, ignoring the hurt look on his face as he turned back to the techy princess that was once again concentrated on her own thing. “Entrapta, wasn’t it? Do you have anyway to cut off this loop off before it starts?”

She thought for a moment, typing away at a keyboard as she started speaking. “Well… I guess theoretically we could find a way to sever your connection to your Runestone… There’s no pre-existing data on what that would do to you or your Runestone though.” She glanced at the others, twirling her hands together. “Buuuuut I personally wouldn’t mind trying—“ She said slowly, trying to restrain her excitement at the prospect of experimenting into unknown territory.

“No—“ Micah cut in before Aether could even reply, earning him a side eye from the man. “Aether— it’s too dangerous! You can’t possibly be considering—“

“And so what if I am!” He cut back in, the two of them now facing each other as the members of the best friend squad in the room look at each other, awkwardness deepening at one side of the room. “Stop acting like you know what’s best for me, we were  _ barely _ friends by the time I went into the ground.”

Micah looked taken aback, looking away to try and hide the tears that were starting to well up in his eyes. Aether frowned, expression softening for just a moment before shaking his head and taking a few steps towards Entrapta. “We’ll try it.”

“Great! I mean uh, I’ll be in the room over working on this then. I may have taken a few other measurements while you were hooked up so I have enough data to start. I’ll uh… leave you guys to your um. Socializing.” She quickly ducked out of the door as Glimmer threw her head back and groaned, grabbing her equipment to teleport them to her. 

Aether and Micah glanced at each other one more time before both looking in the opposite direction. Aether bowed slightly to the rest of the people left in the room. “I’ll take my leave back to the guest room then. Thank you for having me.” He then promptly turned to leave. 

Micah sighed deeply a few seconds after, uncrossing his arms. “I’m gonna uh… go back to my room as well. Goodnight, kids.” 

The room stayed silent for a while afterwards before Catra finally shrugged. “Well, that went well.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi yes, I got attached to my she-Ra insert OC, so I’m writing this fix to give myself serotonin. Hopefully you all like it as well!!!


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